Life Summary
Kim Sung-whan is the first Minister of Environment under the Lee Jae-myung administration.

He is the architect of the administration’s climate policy pledges and has expressed strong commitment to establishing a new Ministry of Climate and Energy.

He was born on October 15, 1965, in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province.

He graduated from Hanseong High School in Seoul, earned a degree in law from Yonsei University, and later received a master’s degree in public administration from Yonsei University’s Graduate School of Public Administration.

As a university student, he was actively involved in the pro-democracy student movement, co-founding the National Council of Student Representatives and serving as the representative for off-campus student groups. He played a part in the June Struggle of 1987, a nationwide protest that led to South Korea’s transition to direct presidential elections and the end of authoritarian rule.

In 1992, he entered politics as a secretary to former Democratic Party lawmaker Shin Gye-ryoon. Beginning in 1995, he gained grassroots political experience as a member of the Nowon District Council and later the Seoul Metropolitan Council.

During the Roh Moo-hyun administration, he served as Policy Coordination Secretary at the Blue House. He was elected Mayor of Nowon District in Seoul in the local elections of 2010 and 2014.

He first entered the National Assembly in 2016 through a by-election and went on to serve three consecutive terms as a lawmaker representing Nowon-eul in the 20th, 21st, and 22nd Assemblies.

He has served on the National Assembly’s Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs, and Startups Committee and the Special Committee on the Climate Crisis. He led legislative efforts on the three major renewable energy laws: the Act on Separation of Renewable Energy, the Green Hydrogen Support Act, and the Mandatory Bidirectional Charging Act for Electric Vehicles.

#KimSungwhan #MinisterofEnvironment #LeeJaemyung #climatepolicy #ClimateEnergyMinistry #renewableenergy #greenhydrogen #EVcharging #JuneStruggle #SouthKorea